As the snow melts and the crowds of skiiers drift away until next winter, you could expect Alpine villages to revert to their usual populations of hardy guides and locals.

But a new breed of wealthy ski bums is staying put in the mountains as traders and fund managers establish an unlikely centre for financial services in resorts from Verbier to Chamonix.

Charles Bromley of Corinthian Financial Management, left London in 2002 to manage the business from the glitzy Swiss ski resort of Verbier, a favourite of members of Europe’s royal families.

“I don’t know whether it’s a coincidence or cause and effect but the social structure of Verbier has changed in line with the financial crisis,” he says. “It used to be very flat but in the last few years more people who traditionally work in the City have moved here and set up permanently.

“Traders and fund managers are coming for tax reasons and the lifestyle. Verbier has a sophisticated international community. We are the new ski bum. And we are here to stay. I can’t think of any reason to go back.”

Mr Bromley, 53, a winter sports enthusiast who has represented Great Britain in the World Luge Natural Track Championships, has a two–minute commute to work on foot, which, he says, “beats sitting on the tube”.

He allows himself to take the morning off if the sun is shining after a fresh dump of snow, or “a blue sky powder day” in ski bum language.

Speaking from a cable car in Verbier, he says: “ If I am not at my desk, or my traders aren’t, we miss opportunities. That’s the best discipline of all.

“ I have a rule that, if it’s a powder day, I will not be in the office in the morning. But my staff must be there for the opening of the European and US markets. And then they can have a three-hour lunch break.”

Mr Bromley, who was previously head of European capital markets at Nikko Securities in London, has hired four people to help manage the business. Three of them are locals he trained himself and the fourth is a former Morgan Stanley researcher.

The Cambridge University-educated trader manages a fund and trades equities and fixed income.

“Verbs”, as it known to the jet-set, is a village of 3,000 permanent residents and has branches of Switzerland’s largest wealth managers – UBS, Credit Suisse Group and Julius Baer Group.

It has a reputation for attracting ultra-high net-worth individuals. Princes William and Harry are spotted on the slopes most years and singer James Blunt and Sir Richard Branson have chalets. The latter’s palatial property costs £100,000 to rent at Christmas.

Richard Branson's uber-luxury The Lodge, in Verbier

Just across the border in France, Chamonix is also luring money managers. British trader Nino Constantini is now based year-round in the resort. He works from a chalet in Les Bossons in the Chamonix valley, where he has a spectacular view of Mont Blanc from his office.

He trades his own account and uses a virtual trading room provided by Amplify trading, based in London’s Canary Wharf. “I’ve been in Chamonix for two years full-time,” he says. “About the only disadvantage is that you’re not physically sat next to other people, bouncing ideas off them. But I can live with that.

“I work the European markets and although we’re all tempted to go skiing on big powder days, I am pretty strict on myself. I might take a couple of hours off but that’s pretty rare. I leave my skiing to the weekends.”

The financial crisis cost more than 100,000 jobs in the City of London. Mr Bromley says some people relocated for this reason but others are purely motivated by a change in lifestyle.

“I remain staggered by the amount some people earn in the City,” he says. “But living out here you just don’t need that sort of money. It’s all about the lifestyle.”

Another trader in Chamonix, who declined to be named, agrees that the appeal of the ski resorts is luring traders and bankers.

“Ski resorts are hardly going to take the place of the traditional big financial centres but that’s not the point,” he says. “In the past traders might have taken a year out of the City to come and ski while dabbling with work but now you hear it more and more that they are making firm roots here.”